Hamptons Life

Lorraine Dusky Tackles Underbelly Of Adoption In Newest Memoir

April 5, 1966. It is a day forever etched in Lorraine Dusky’s mind. It is the day her first and only child was born, a daughter she would surrender to adoption just two weeks later.

Fifteen years of grief and loss passed before Ms. Dusky saw her again. The couple that adopted her had named her Jane. Their reunion led to a loving yet rocky relationship spanning more than two decades, ultimately ending with her daughter’s suicide in 2007.

The tragedy deeply changed Ms. Dusky as a person, informing her newest memoir, “Hole In My Heart,” in ways she had never anticipated. Published on June 3 by Leto Media, the book follows her groundbreaking “Birthmark” in 1979, which chronicled her push to change adoption laws after giving up Jane.

Ms. Dusky, who is a freelance writer for The Press, said she knew she wanted to write another book about her experience with adoption the moment she met Jane, though she began to write it only five years ago after decades of research. The tentative title was “Happy Ending,” she said. It turned out to be more complex than that.

“It’s not pro-adoption. It talks about the problems of giving up and being adopted. And adoption is a small word for the trauma and grief that, being a mother who gives up a child, and being a child given up, causes,” Ms. Dusky said over lunch at Marine Park in Sag Harbor, not far from where she lives with her husband, Anthony Brandt.

“I think there are still a lot of people who see adoption as a good thing, without caveats,” she continued. “For them, the book might be a real wake-up call.”

Hailing from the suburbs of Detroit, Ms. Dusky moved to Rochester to work as a journalist for The Democrat & Chronicle shortly after attending Wayne State University from 1960 to 1964. She was 22 and unmarried when she discovered she was pregnant. In 1965, she quit her job and hid the growing baby from everyone, even her family. It was an unforgiving era for children born out of wedlock.

“I did not feel like I had a choice. People today think of the ’60s as some exotic era when sex, love, drugs, and rock and roll, and getting pregnant should have been no big deal,” she said. “It wasn’t like that at all. It was so shameful. It was so terrible to be pregnant and not married.”

That didn’t mean Ms. Dusky was at peace with her decision, which she described as “preordained.” For six years following, she felt empty. “You know something is missing. You know you did a bad thing.”

But 1972 marked another big change. After stumbling across an article about adoption in The New York Times, Ms. Dusky joined the Adoptees Liberty Movement Association, or ALMA, and launched a nine-year search for her daughter, simultaneously pushing for changes to adoption laws across the country.

During that process, she penned “Birthmark,” landing her on numerous talk shows to discuss her, at the time, controversial views. She was the first woman to publicly start the conversation about adoption—suggesting that birth parent identities should not be kept a secret from adoptees.

The law sealing original birth records—the same one she has fought for decades—still exists today in most states. Next year, New Jersey will open its records, one step toward further reform.

In 1981, it simply hadn’t come. Ms. Dusky resorted to a man they called The Searcher. Whether he was a private detective, judge, social worker, or employee with the FBI or CIA remains uncertain. All she knows is, $1,200 led her to a brief telephone conversation with then-15-year-old Jane.

It was anything but a joy-filled, tearful reunion.

“I had to find out if you knew you were adopted,” Ms. Dusky had told her. “That’s why I made that weird phone call a half hour ago.”

“Uh huh,” Jane had replied.

Meeting face to face three days later in Wisconsin, where Jane lived, proved to be somewhat awkward. Ms. Dusky was nerve-wracked, wondering what to talk to her about. And Jane, she would later find out, was extremely cautious with her actions and words, so as not to offend her father, Gary Rhymer, who supervised the visit.

An unusual relationship was born, Ms. Dusky explained. While Jane didn’t call her “Mom,” they did see each other often, despite living in different states. Jane’s birth father, Patrick Brasley, did not wish to meet her. And not only did Jane grapple with being given up for adoption, she also suffered from epilepsy—one of the more troubling parts of her life and, most likely, a reason for her suicide.

Tearing up behind her dark red sunglasses, Ms. Dusky explained Jane had tried to kill herself several times before.

“Giving up a child is the most horrendous, difficult thing any woman could do. Every fiber of your body is telling you, ‘You have to keep it.’ It’s kind of unknown what’s going to happen to them,” she said. “Adoptees always have feelings of not having control over a situation. They didn’t ask to be adopted. There’s anger, there’s issues of abandonment.”

Today, Ms. Dusky continues her battle to open adoption records and, with the backing of local politicians, she said she is hopeful that change will happen sooner rather than later, as many adoptees often wait for their parents to die before embarking on their journey to find their biological mothers and fathers. In the meantime, she still keeps in touch with Jane’s husband, Bill, and their daughter, Britt, whose name was changed for the book and this article.

Ms. Dusky lost Jane, found her, and then lost her again. In the years since, she has coped. The time not knowing her daughter at all was far worse.

“It was easier to grieve for her dying than it was to grieve about losing her to adoption, because you know what’s happened and you know there isn’t any more you can do for her,” she said. “I can’t imagine my life without her in it. It would have been a sad life.”

Lorraine Dusky will read from her new memoir, “Hole In My Heart,” on Saturday, June 20, at 5 p.m. at Canio’s Books in Sag Harbor. For more information, visit caniosbooks.com. To read Ms. Dusky’s blog, visit firstmotherforum.com.

How awful of her to have called that poor young girl up out of nowhere without even knowing if the girl knew she was adopted. This woman sounds selfish. No wonder the poor girl committed suicide. She should have been allowed to decide whether or not she wanted to search for her birth parent. It was *her* life, it should have been her choice.

How wonderful for you to pass judgement on a situation that you think you know about first hand because you read an article.

Unfortunately knowing or not knowing is part of the beloved adoption process of both yesteryear and today. Trying to ascertain that BEFORE is NOT selfish, but dealing with reality i the best way possible, but thanks again so doing what the world has always done.

Let us judge a woman who has relinquished rather than trying to image her pain and have understanding ...moreand compassion. Yes, please do make her somehow deserve these unfortunate events. Oh not far enough, not cruel enough, then please do blame her daughters death and lay more blame at her feet. Do you honor her choice to end her life as well?

How about you instead, stop making ignorant cold comments and read the book. Maybe you can find your heart?

But the way she describes the pain of giving her daughter away -- why didn't she have any sympathy to help prevent her granddaughter's adoption away? They weren't too poor, and the single mother stigma was over.

So obvious still that no one read the book...Lorraine was not made aware that her daughter was pregnant until after the baby was born premature and at that point adoption had already been decided on...yes, she did try to suggest otherwise. She hoped that the father's family had a chance. She suggested open adoption at least as a last resort. But her place as "biological mother/grandmothers' was not on solid ground with either her daughter or her adoptive parents.And sadly, often when ...moreadoption is presented as a solution for a mother, we do manage to convince ourselves that WE can do it; that we can manage it better, that it WILL work for us. Plus adoptees all too often also relinquish. Reliving their own trauma or justification of their own adoption, it surely isn't quite as easy as all want to make it out to be. But she tried.. want to know more details, you should just read the book rather than wondering and assuming.

Correct--her critics have not read the book. I'm her husband, and have read it five times. I also lived it. No. 1, Lorraine did everything in her power to try to persuade Jane not to give this particular granddaughter up to adoption. Jane wouldn't listen to her. No. 2, Lorraine's granddaughter's father wanted to raise her. Jane would not let that happen. No. 3, Lorraine did not know her daughter was pregnant until after the child was born. No. 4, Jane killed herself from a combination ...moreof adoption and the harm it does, epilepsy and the harm it did to Jane , which was considerable, and the PMS she suffered from.No. 5, Lorraine has another granddaughter, also Jane's daughter, with whom she has a close and loving relationship.No. 6, the money issue. Successful writers? Lorraine gave up all income to write this book. It took five years. We survive like most writers, hand to mouth.No. 7, you want to criticize? Read the book. Get your facts straight.

A comment was to the Author's biracial Granddaughter's blog that totally contradicts what the author alleges.

If the author wants to say she stands on the truth - don't delete this comment-- it may not match what the author has spun in her book. It is the truth.

google this paragraph and get the whole article.

It’s hard out here for a WLW

Lisa BrimmerWhen I think of WLWs (White Liberal Women) in the context of adoption, ...moreit is hard not to think of my Birth Mother, my Biological Grandmother, the WLWs I sling gluten-free beers and pinot grigio to on the regular with their families looking more like Brangelina’s than the typical Midwestern portrait of fair-hair and skinned Scandinavian Idolatry.

I can read her name and the way to find her writing (and how to get to it) in one of your comments above. Can't you?

I have no control over this comment section. Anything deleted is being done by The Southampton Press. They do not allow live links, but as you say, her piece is easily accessible from the lead that you provide.

What facts related to her (and that is a very small part of the whole story) omitted from book? She no longer wishes to have any contact after a year and ...morea half or so of a good relationship. She walked away. She said she was in a "good place" and no longer wanted to stay in touch. She visited her for a week. We tried to give her a good time by spending a few days in the city where she was treated to restaurants, the theater, museums, the jazz spot she wanted to go to.

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